ACHSHAPH –
Town mentioned in Josh. xi. 1 and xii. 20 as the seat of a north Canaanitish king. Robinson ("Biblical Researches," iii. 55, London, 1856) identifies it with the ruins at Kesaf, or Iksaf, a village northwest of Hunin and south...

ACHZIB –
1. A town of Judah, in the southern Shephelah or lowland (Josh. xv. 44), coupled with Mareshah in Micah, i. 14, where it appears as paronomastic with deceit. In Gen. xxxviii. 5, it reads Chezib, and in I Chron. iv. 22, it...

ACME –
Jewish slave of Livia, wife of the Emperor Augustus. During the family troubles which clouded the last nine years of Herod's life, she came under the influence of his son Antipater, while he lived at Rome. Induced by large...

ACOSTA, CRISTÓVAL –
Spanish physician and botanist of the sixteenth century. He was born in Africa, whither his parents fled when exiled from Spain. He studied medicine, and for several years traveled through Africa and Asia, particularly through...

ACOSTA, DUARTE NUÑES D' –
Merchant at Hamburg during the first half of the seventeenth century; descendant of a prominent Marano family from Portugal. When, about 1640, King John IV. of Portugal established his agency at Hamburg, he made Acosta the first...

ACOSTA, JOAN D' –
Jester at the court of Peter the Great of Russia in the first half of the eighteenth century. Originally he was a broker at Hamburg, but met with such small success that he removed to Russia, and received an appointment as...

ACOSTA, LUIS D' –
Marano of Villa-Flor, Portugal; born in 1587. At the age of forty-five, he was condemned to the galleys because he had been secretly following the law of Moses.Bibliography: Kayserling, Sephardim, p. 203.W. M.

ACOSTA, URIEL –
Religious Scruples. Noted writer and rationalist; born at Oporto, 1590; died at Amsterdam, April, 1647. Born and reared in a Marano family, all of whose members had become strict Catholics—his father held an ecclesiastical...

ACQUI –
A city on the Bormida, in the province of Alessandria, Italy, famous for its hot springs and its ancient Roman ruins. According to its archives, Jews have lived there since 1400. In the first decades of the nineteenth century...

ACQUITTAL IN TALMUDIC LAW –
Composition of Jewish Court The Jewish court for hearing capital offenses was composed of twenty-three judges, and according to the opinion of many sages, even offenses of a lower degree, such as were punishable by stripes only,...

ACRA –
Fortress built by Antiochus Epiphanes in the year 173 B.C. at Jerusalem, on an outlying spur of the Temple mount toward the south, where he placed a garrison, stored provisions, and kept armor. The Greek (I Macc. i. 33) reads...

ACRE –
The Modern City of Acre.(From a photograph by Bonfils.)City and seaport of Phenicia, situated on a promontory at the foot of Mount Carmel (compare Josephus, "Ant." ii. 10, § 2), having (1901) a population of about 9,800, among...

ACROSTICS –
Biblical. Compositions, usually rhythmical, in which certain letters (generally the first or last of each line), taken consecutively, form a name, phrase, or sentence. Several instances of alphabetical Acrostics occur in the...

ACSÁDY, IGNATZ (IGNATIUS) –
Hungarian historian; born at Nagy-Károly, September, 9, 1845. He was educated at Debreczin and Budapest, and he began his journalistic career in 1869 as contributor to "Századunk," a political journal. In 1870 he joined the...

ACTS OF PARLIAMENT RELATING TO THE JEWS OF ENGLAND –
The legislature of England expresses its will in formal documents known as Acts, and thus the record of the legislative enactments concerning the Jews of England is to be found in the collected Acts known as the "Statutes of the...

ADAH –
Biblical Data: One of Lamech's two wives (Gen. iv. 19, 20). The name is mentioned in the poem in verses 23 and 24.The names of Lamech's wives have been variously explained. "Ornament" and "Shadow" are the meanings most often...

ADAH –
Wife of Esau (Gen. xxxvi. 2-16), thought by modern writers to be added by the final redactor (R) of the Pentateuch. Adah is said (verse 2) to be the daughter of Elon the Hittite. The priestly narrator (P) (Gen. xxvi. 34) has...

ADAIAH –
1. A man of Boscath, father of Jedidah, the mother of King Josiah (II Kings, xxii. 1). 2. Two members of the Bani family who had taken foreign wives (Ezra, x. 29, 39). 3. The son of Joiarib of the tribe of Judah, residing in...

ADAM –
Biblical Data: The Hebrew and Biblical name for man, and also for the progenitor of the human race. In the account of the Creation given in Gen. i. man was brought into being at the close of the sixth creative day, "made in the...

ADAM, BOOK OF –
The Talmud says nothing about the existence of a Book of Adam, and Zunz's widely accepted assertion to the contrary ("G. V." 2d ed., p. 136) is erroneous, as appears upon an inspection of the passage in 'Ab. Zarah, 5a, and Gen....

ADAM –
City near the Jordan. In Josh. iii. 16, Adam is described as the city "that is besideZaretan," on the Jordan, near the spot where the Israelites crossed the river on dry ground. It is probably to be identified with the modern...